I attempted to speak about it again, but he motioned me away with his hand, and, in a moment I was back to this earth. I saw the brethren carrying my body along, and it was loathsome to me in appearance.
A day or two after my fall from the tree, I was carried to the Mountain Meadows, where I was fed on goat's milk and soon recovered.
In the autumn of this year, 1858, I received instructions from President Brigham Young to take a company of men and visit the Moquis, or Town Indians, on the east side of the Colorado River.
The object of this visit was to learn something of the character and condition of this people, and to take advantage of any opening there might be to preach the gospel to them and do them good.
My companions for this trip were Brothers Dudley and Thomas Leavitt, two of my brothers, Frederick and William Hamblin, Samuel Knight, Ira Hatch, Andrew Gibbons, Benjamin Knell, Ammon M. Tenney (Spanish interpreter), James Davis (Welsh interpreter), and Naraguts, an Indian guide.
A Spanish interpreter was thought advisable, from the fact that the Spanish language was spoken and understood by many of the Indians in that region of country. A Welsh interpreter was taken along, thinking it possible that there might be some truth in a report which had been circulated that there were evidences of Welsh descent among these Indians. An Indian guide was requisite, from the fact the none of the brethren had traveled the route. This was the first of a series of journeys to this people.
The company, consisting of twelve men, including myself, left the Santa Clara settlement on the 28th of October. Our general course of travel was a little south of east. The third night we camped at Pipe Springs, a place now occupied by a stone fort, and known as Winsor Castle.
While there, two or three Piutes came to our camp. One of them asked me to go with him to some large rocks, which lay under the high cliffs near by. As we approached them he showed me a human skeleton. "There," said he, "are the bones of Nahguts, who killed your ox on the Clara. He came as far as here, was taken blind, could not find the spring and died."
The following evening we camped at the foot of the Kibab, or Buckskin Mountain, with the chief and nearly all the tribe of Kibab Indians. They provided supper by cooking a large number of rabbits.
They put these in a pile, and covered them with hot ashes and coals. When sufficiently cooked, the chief performed the ceremony of thanking the Father for the success of their hunt, and asked for a continuation of His blessings in obtaining food. He then divided the rabbits among the company. We all joined in the feast. They gave us meat and we gave them bread.